


Moon

by Hagar



Series: Zionist Werewolves of Ma'adim [2]
Category: Jewish Scripture & Legend, Zionist Galactic Federation (Tumblr)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Community: purimgifts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-19 02:02:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18129491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hagar/pseuds/Hagar
Summary: The newly-sworn in Minister of Foreign Affairs read through the need-to-know paperwork he’d been presented with. The queen waited patiently.





	Moon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Treon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Treon/gifts).



The office was quiet while the newly-sworn in Minister of Foreign Affairs read through the need-to-know paperwork he’d been presented with. The queen waited patiently, her elbows resting on her desk and her fingers steepled.

Eventually, the minister looked up from the folder. “I take it that this is not an elaborate hoax.”

The queen shook her head. “It’s entirely too real.”

“I’m not sure which part of this is the hardest to believe.”

“That the Ma’adim colony exists after all?” the queen suggested sardonically.

The minister gave her the Look that that statement deserved. “I was thinking more about the part where the Tribe of Binyamin is not lost after all. Wait, no,” he continued, matching the queen’s tone. “Not that part.”

The queen maintained her poker face. “Perhaps the part where they’d gotten themselves lost and stayed that way on purpose?”

“I think that wasn’t it either.”

“Then what could it possibly be?”

“Perhaps,” the minister said, incredulity finding its way into his voice, “the part where they’re all, apparently, _werewolves?_ ”

“Now why would that be difficult to believe?”

“Seriously, Hannah,” the minister said. “Please tell me that this is some sort of a prank. A hazing ritual, maybe.”

“Nope,” Queen Hannah replied with fake - if remarkably convincing - cheerfully. “Though I voiced a similar doubt, when Mom introduced me to our youngest siblings.”

“Who are werewolves.”

“Who are werewolves,” Queen Hannah confirmed with a nod. “Get used to the idea, Alon.”

“How many people know?”

“Here on the moon? You and I. My son is far too young to know, for now.”

Alon buried his face in his hands for a moment. “I always did wonder,” he said when he uncovered his face, “why we settled on the moon, on Venus, in the oceans of _Europa_ , but not on the one planet with both water and comfortable gravity.”

Queen Hannah nodded. “My father gave them the first choice,” she explained. “We fled hate; they fled themselves. Ma’adim’s moons are that much smaller, you see. They were hoping it would make the transformations… easier.”

“Did it?”

“For those born there, yes. For those born under Earth’s moon, not so much.” She paused. “There were a few who tried settling here, too. It did not go well.”

“Should I be afraid to ask?” he said.

“Yes.”

“I’ll ask anyway.”

“They never changed back. Even after they were moved to Ma’adim.”

For a while, the room was quiet again. Then Alon asked: “How did that ever happen, anyway? An entire Tribe of werewolves?”

“Apparently the first werewolf in the lineage of Binyamin was Binyamin himself. But the lineage also produced ordinary humans until the Battle of Gibeah. From Shoftim,” Queen Hannah explained in reply to Alon’s expression. “Do you remember the story?”

“Vaguely. That’s the one where…” Alon’s eyes widened. “Hold up a fucking second, Tu Be’Av is mid-month, it’s a _full moon_. Are you telling me that--”

“The the 600 who survived were all werewolves. And that apparently werewolves produce less daughters, which the other Tribes were aware of, and the reason why the tradition of Tu Be’Av was erected.”

“But that tradition’s been defunct for _ages._ ”

“Apparently, while it’s forbidden for the families of non-Yemini women to give them for marriage with Yemini men, it isn’t forbidden for the women themselves to make the decision. Some of the women who leave Earth are given the option to join the Ma’adim colony.”

“And what happens if any say no?”

Queen Hannah made a face. “The profiling is extremely careful.”

“But it’s can’t be 100% successful.”

“No, but even the ones who choose not to go to Ma’adim are sympathetic enough that there’s no need to _enforce_ their silence on the matter.”

There was another lull in the conversation.

“I think I’m beginning to accept that this is real,” Alon said.

“Good. How soon can I coordinate your formal visit?”

Alon stared at the queen, then buried his face in his hands again.

 


End file.
